TOYAKO, Japan: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here yesterday for a G-8 summit where he is expected to tell US President George W. Bush he will move ahead on a stalled bilateral nuclear energy deal.
The Indian premier, who is among 23 leaders meeting in Japan for a Group of Eight summit, is visiting after US pressure to advance the atomic energy pact before Bush ends his US presidency. Singh and Bush in 2005 unveiled an agreement to share civilian nuclear technology — a deal that when finalized would see India entering the fold of global nuclear commerce after being shut out for decades.
But the Indian ruling coalition’s leftist allies have been trying to derail the deal, vowing to bring down the government if the pact is implemented.
To secure both the deal and his government’s survival, Singh has realigned his four-year-old coalition by securing the support of the Samajwadi Party, a regional party from northern India with a history of pragmatic alliances with governments.
Their support should ensure that Singh avoids having to hold an early election this year just as the government grapples with 13-year-high inflation and signs of economic slowdown.
“The nuclear deal is safe and so is the central government, thanks to the Samajwadi Party,” the Economic Times said in an editorial yesterday.
The four Communist parties that give the ruling coalition a majority in Parliament had set a Monday deadline for the government to tell say if it was going ahead with the deal.
In its reply yesterday, the government did not say if it was proceeding with the accord, but requested a meeting with the Left on Thursday — an encounter that could see the formal split between the two sides.
“The ball is in the court of the Left parties, not the Congress,” senior ruling Congress party leader Veerappa Moily told reporters. “If they have any grievances they can express them at the next meeting.
The main Hindu nationalist opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has called for a vote of confidence in the government. It is almost certain that the vote will be called if the left withdraw their support.
The Samajwadi Party has 39 seats in Parliament, compared with 59 for the Communist parties. The Congress-led ruling coalition needs the support of 44 lawmakers to reach a majority. It would try to win the other five seats from smaller parties. In a pre-departure statement, Singh confirmed his meeting with Bush but made no direct reference to the controversial issue.
